1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stamping system and processes, and more particularly stamping processes for manufacturing parts with high tolerances for various applications, such as optical fiber connection.
2. Description of Related Art
Precision parts are required in many applications, such as optical fiber based communication. Optical fiber based communication channels are the system of choice in many defense and commercial applications because of their high performance and small size. Particularly, fiber optics have “proved-in” in long distance applications, such as city-to-city and continent-to-continent communication spans, because of the lower cost of electrical-to-optical-to-electrical (E-O-E) conversion components, fiber amplifiers, and fiber cables relative to pure electrical systems using coaxial copper cable that do not requiring E-O-E. These long haul fiber systems can have hundreds of kilometers of fiber between terminals.
Shorter distance systems typically have only a few tens of kilometers of fiber between terminals, and very short reach (VSR) systems have only a few tens of meters of fiber between terminals. Although fiber links for telecom and datacom in metro, access and premise areas are short as compared to long haul links, there are a great many of them. The number of components required in the deployment of fiber for these types of applications is large. In these short systems, fiber optics “prove-in” is very sensitive to the cost of E-O-E terminal conversion devices and supporting circuitry, as well as any passive and active optoelectronic devices and equipment linked between terminal ends. Consequently, for optoelectronic active and passive components, sub-assemblies and assemblies to “prove-in” in short distance and VSR systems, their average sell prices must be lowered. Lowering of the average sell prices will help stimulate the unit volume necessary to justify investment in high speed manufacturing technologies.
A significant element of the cost of both active and passive fiber components and connectorized cable is the fiber connector itself. Precision ferrules and associated means for aligning them (e.g., precision split sleeve for single fiber connection, precision ground pins for multi-fiber connections) dominate the cost of current fiber connectors. The alignment components are normally required to align fibers to active and passive devices, as well as to align two fibers for demountable connection. Precision alignment of two polished fiber ends is needed to ensure that overall optical loss in a fiber link is equal or less than the specified optical connector loss budget for a system. For single-mode telecommunication-grade fiber, this typically corresponds to connector fiber alignment tolerances that are less than 1000 nm. Current connectors have not changed in basic design for more than 20 years, and it is generally accepted that they cost too much and are too difficult to assemble. The cost of manufacturing precision fiber connectors must decrease if fiber optic is to be the communication media of choice for short haul and VSR applications.
Connectors, in both parallel fiber and single fiber links, operating at multi-gigabit rates must be assembled with subcomponents fabricated with sub micron precision. As if producing parts with such precision levels were not challenging enough, for the resulting end product to be economical it must be done in a fully automated, very high-speed process.
Stamping processes have been deployed in manufacturing processes for mass-producing parts at low cost. However, heretofore, stamping processes have not been effective in producing parts with acceptable tolerances for optoelectronic components. In fact, there is no acceptable high-speed commercial production process that produces optoelectronic components with acceptable tolerances. U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,985 to Balliet et al. is directed to an optical fiber connector. Balliet describes in a cursory manner that some of the connector components can be produced by a coining or stamping process (e.g., col. 3, lines 20-21, 55-57). However, Balliet does not provide an enabling disclosure of such stamping process, let alone an enabling disclosure of a stamping process for producing parts within 1000 nm.
It is therefore desirable to have a manufacturing technology capable of producing parts for optoelectronic applications and other applications with tolerances within 1,000 nanometers and capable of running at very high speeds.